What’s going to happen?
The Knight Foundation and the FCC came to Oakland, CA in April 2011 to announce a major new tech competition called Apps for Communities that will award $100,000 in prizes to reward mobile and web-based applications that use government and public data to “deliver personalized, actionable information to people that are least likely to be online.”

So, that’s where Code for Oakland comes in. We’re pulling together a low-cost one-day Bar Camp that will bring government officials, developers, designers, and interested parties together for a day that will be devoted to looking at local datasets of use to people in Oakland, and that gives teams a chance to talk through, brainstorm and prototype their ideas before the competition closes on July 11.

Come win prize money for your ideas! Win prize money to support building an application to submit to Apps for Communities-over $2,500 in potential awards on the day.

If you are a coder, designer, developer, database guru, hacker then read about the bar camp event below…

If you are not a coder but represent local government, the nonprofit community or you are an Oakland resident and have ideas that you would love to see built into powerful applications to help your community, then we invite you to join ourCommunity Listening Events.

What will happen at the bar camp event?
This will be a day of talking, brainstorming, planning. Optimally, we hope to:Discuss some of the local government data sets competition entrants might work withBuild connections between potential collaborators who want to build useful apps for local people and need to fill out their team/skillsEncourage the exchange of experiences, expertise and ideas between those involved in leading open government data initiatives around the East Bay and nearby.Prototype ideas We hope there will be plenty of space for developers to hack on things – from refining core bits and pieces of technology to rapid prototyping of new ideas

****Community Members & Local Organizations****Can I propose a session or suggest an app that would help my community?
Yes, especially if you are the owner of, or have access to, public data sets with Oakland/East Bay relevant information. We are holding two free, public Community Listening Events at City Hall on May 24 and June 3 to develop your ideas into possible projects for the competition! Sign up for one here. You can also propose your session as part of the data camp-post–send ideas to codeforoakland@oaklandlocal.com; and we will post them.

What kinds of topics will be covered?
Sessions will include things like:

What are datasets that can serve low-income people and local communities of color?

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Spike has research experience in community development, housing, criminology, spatial epidemiology and reentry issues. He speaks nationally about data driven decision making and was chosen as one of Next American City’s Vanguard class of 2012 and honored as a White House Champion of Change in 2013. He’s a dad, husband and co-author for the new book on open public data: Beyond Transparency.